TILTON, NH — The daughter of the high school principal who died during the Sandy Hook shooting walked out of a town hall with Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) on Tuesday after the event erupted in chaos over the lawmaker’s answer to a question about gun regulations. Ayotte was one of 46 senators to vote down a bipartisan proposal to expand background checks to gun shows and online purchases.
Erica Lafferty left in frustration as Ayotte attempted to answer a question about framing the gun safety debate as a public health crisis. The first-term senator began saying that she would concentrate on “criminal activity with guns” before Zandra Rice Hawkins, a member of the group Granite State Progress, interrupted and asked, “So why do you let them get the guns in the first place?”
The questioned led to a round of booing and cross argumentation between gun safety activists and the largely pro-Ayotte crowd. Lafferty walked out as other proponents of stricter gun laws held up signs reading “shame on you.”
After the event was over, Hawkins attempted to approach Ayotte to ask if she would hold a town hall about gun violence. But she was shoved away by a large man who did not appear to be a law enforcement official. ThinkProgress asked a local sheriff who was attending the event if the man was in fact a police officer and the sheriff admitted that he was not.
At an earlier town hall, Lafferty directly confronted Ayotte over her vote. “You had mentioned that the burden to owners of gun stores that these expanded background checks would cause,” Lafferty said. “I’m just wondering why the burden of my mother being gunned down in the hall of her elementary school isn’t as important as that?”
http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2013/04/30/1945421/second-ayotte-town-hall-erupts-into-chaos-over-gun-vote/?mobile=nc
Sen. Ayotte confronted by daughter of Newtown victim at town hall meeting
“You had mentioned that day the burden on owners of gun stores that the expanded background checks would cost. I am just wondering why the burden of my mother being gunned down in the halls of her elementary school isn’t as important as that,” Erica Lafferty said.
“Erica, I, certainly let me just say, I’m obviously so sorry,” Ayotte replied. “And, I think that ultimately when we look at what happened in Sandy Hook, I understand that’s what drove this whole discussion — all of us want to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”
The senator said expand criminal background checks wouldn’t have prevented the Sandy Hook school shooting, which left 20 young children and six adults dead. She said she supported efforts to restrict the mentally ill from purchasing firearms.
The Senate voted 54-46 in favor of a bipartisan amendment to a larger gun bill that would require background checks on firearm sales at gun shows and on the Internet. However, the Senate failed to reach the 60-vote threshold needed to overcome a Republican-led filibuster.
Ayotte’s approval rating has dropped 15 points since October, according to Public Policy Polling. Half of the voters in New Hampshire said her “no” vote would make them less likely to support her re-election, while only 23 percent said it would make them more likely to support her.
Watch video, courtesy of NBC News, below:
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